The $750,000 Primary Residence Procedure

Since April 1, 2025, a decedent's primary residence worth up to $750,000 can transfer through a simplified court petition rather than a full probate. That is a genuine change, and it is the first meaningful relief California homeowners have gotten from this system in a long time.

It is also narrower than the headlines suggested, so read the limits before you plan around it.

Before April 2025, the simplified real property procedure was capped at a figure so low that no house in Los Angeles County qualified. The cap for a decedent's primary residence is now $750,000. Below that line, a petition can transfer the property without opening a full administration, without a personal representative, and without the statutory percentage fee.

Other assets are unaffected. They still ride on the small estate affidavit with its own threshold of $184,500, adjusted for inflation. The two procedures are separate and you can use both.

The $750,000 line is a cliff, not a slope

At $740,000 you file a petition and get an order. At $780,000 you open a full probate and the statutory fee applies to the gross value. There is no partial credit and there is no rounding in your favor. Given where Los Angeles values sit, a great many homes land just above the line, and the ones that land just below tend to be condos, smaller properties east and south of downtown, and homes with real deferred maintenance.

And here is the part I dislike saying. The valuation is done honestly or not at all. Do not go shopping for the appraiser who will tell you $749,000. A court order obtained on a shaded value is an order somebody can attack later, and the person attacking it is usually a sibling.

How the petition works

1. Wait the required period after the date of death before filing
2. Get a date-of-death valuation of the residence, ordinarily through a probate referee appraisal
3. File the petition with the court, identifying the successors in interest and giving notice to everyone entitled to it
4. Attend the hearing and obtain an order determining who now owns the property
5. Record the order with the county recorder so title reflects the new owners

Simplified does not mean automatic. There is a hearing, there is notice, and there are people entitled to object. If an heir disputes who should inherit, this procedure will not resolve that quarrel any faster than a full case would. What it saves you is the administration machinery and the percentage fee, which is plenty.

Get a date-of-death value on the property before you do anything else. Send us the address and the date of death and we will tell you which side of the $750,000 line you are likely on and what that means for cost.